The good ground corresponds to those whose hearts and minds are softened by God's calling and receive it genuinely. It is a rich and fine soil—a mind that submits itself to the full influence of God's truth (Acts 22:14). They not only accept God's Word—the message of Jesus Christ, as rich soil accepts a seed for growth—they also live by it and bear fruit (Ephesians 4:1-6).
The seed represents God's Word communicated in various ways: in preaching, writing, and acts of divine intervention. Those God chooses understand the gospel because it comes only by the power of His Spirit. Without this spiritual power, the hearer is susceptible to having God's knowledge stolen by Satan, the accuser and tempter.
God's Word sometimes falls on the ears of people whose hearts are calloused by sin, on whom it makes no real impression. Like seed on a hard-packed road, it is consumed before it ever has a chance to develop. Such hardened people soon lose interest in Christ's good news and continue in the ways of the world.
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